Strength in numbers
Procter & Gamble liquid detergent plant attracts 'cluster' companies

By Sam Barnes

Procter & Gamble's decision to build a second U.S. liquid detergent plant at its existing dry detergent plant in Pineville has yielded some notable fringe benefits.

Using Louisiana Economic Development's business clustering model, P&G has attracted several front-end suppliers to property adjacent to the $120 million plant. Plastipak Packaging Inc., Calvary Industries Inc. and Integrated Packaging Corp. are already building facilities at or near the plant.

"We're creating a supply chain here that more than justifies P&G's investment," Plant Leader Todd Hoffman said. "It's our objective to exceed the company's expectations and we're on track to do that."

LED spearheaded the clustering concept as a remedy to the downturn in the industrial/manufacturing sector. The concept typically includes an anchor tenant surrounded by a group of its suppliers.

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"The best current example is P&G," said Mike Taylor, director of Petrochemical Refining & Environmental Technology Cluster Development for LED. "To manufacture detergent you need bottles, so the bottle manufacturer is locating across the street. You need a company to pre-blend the materials, so that company is also locating nearby.

"The closer they get to the anchor tenant the better all of their economies and bottom lines are, and the more globally competitive they become," Taylor added.

To encourage clustering, LED uses the state's general fund to finance projects that enhance infrastructure around potential sites, including sewer, water and road improvements.

As a result, Pineville's infrastructure will get a boost from the project.

"Our initial concern was water treatment," Hoffman said. "The local plant was at capacity and we needed to expand that. The second need was the road infrastructure around the perimeter of the plant."

Long-range community demands for infrastructure have also been addressed.

"We're not the only business out here, so future water needs such as fire protection for area businesses were addressed," Hoffman said. Pineville also received a state grant to build a wastewater treatment plant, necessary in part to accommodate the P&G expansion.

Once infrastructure concerns were resolved, the new detergent plant broke ground in early 2003. Fru-Con Construction Corp. of Ballwin, Mo., is the project's construction manager, Inland Construction of Pineville is the general contractor and Lockwood-Greene Engineers of Spartanburg, S.C., is the engineer.

Jim Sexton, lead construction manager for P&G, said the company's decision to build the new plant next to an existing dry detergent plant was unprecedented.

"P&G has never built a liquids plant next to an existing dry detergent plant," Sexton said. "That means we're making and shipping product at the same time that we're building."

At peak in September, about 800 construction workers will be working next to hundreds of P&G employees.

"We've had a lot of constructability meetings to make this work, because we're not only tying into existing buildings we're building inside of them," Sexton said.

Contractors performed some of the preliminary work off site to reduce the jobsite population.

"There's a lot of modular construction where our pipes come in already placed in the steel, already heat traced and insulated," Sexton said. "That enabled us to take about 200 people off site, versus stick-building." Performance Contractors of Baton Rouge performed most of the modular construction.

P&G also restricted access to the site's south road "to allow construction deliveries to get in and out more easily," Sexton added.

When work began in early 2003, replacing the existing clay soil was the project team's immediate concern. The soil was highly expansive and required a significant amount of cut and fill.

Crews followed with more than 30,000 cu. yds. of concrete for vessel and tank foundations.

"The tank farms had the largest continuous concrete pours that P&G has ever had placed," Sexton said. Beginning at night, Boh Bros. Construction of New Orleans placed the concrete in 1,400- and 1,800-cu.-yd. pours. The concrete was supplied by TXI's Alexandria plant.

"We started at 2 a.m., poured until about 5 p.m. and finished at 10 p.m.," Sexton said. A special admixture was added to the tank foundation concrete to reduce shrinkage and cracking.

In other concrete work, The Haskell Co. of Jacksonville, Fla., is building a final product warehouse with tilt-up concrete panels using ready-mix supplied by Heck Industries of Baton Rouge.

Lafayette Steel Erectors is assembling structural steel for piperacks, tank and vessel supports.

"Most of the major vessels were fabricated offsite, but those that were too large to transport were fabricated and assembled at the jobsite," Sexton said.

Crews also retrofitted an existing warehouse to accommodate the liquid plant's product differentiation and packaging area. The original structure did not have adequate foundation or structure to support an equipment mezzanine in the warehouse.

"We essentially took the roof off and took the columns down, then Boh Bros. came back with new 4- to 5-ft.-diameter caissons down to 28 ft. deep," Sexton said.

The new plant should begin producing new liquid detergent by February 2005, although total completion is not expected until next summer.

"After February, we'll complete areas of the plant that are not critical to production," Sexton said.

Nearby, Plastipak Packaging's 500,000-sq.-ft. plant - the largest cluster plant surrounding P&G - will be located on 62 acres.

The plant will supply P&G with containers for the new liquids production and will employ more than 100 employees. A number of milestone technologies will be utilized at the facility, including Plastipak's proprietary high-output, blow-molding production system.

"We'll be linked electronically to Plastipak," said P&G public affairs coordinator Bonnie Lemoine. "If we need bottles they'll know it."

The Calvary complex will supply liquid raw material to the plant through a pipeline and Integrated Packaging will supply corrugated material from a location within nearby England Air Park.

"We're on schedule," Lemoine said. "We wish we hadn't been hit with the wettest June on record for this area, but we've managed to stay on track in spite of that."

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For more information about the new Plastipak plant, go to: http://www.plastipak.com/news/08-12-03.html